DIY home studio

Last week Angela and I had a whirlwind 24 hours of totally re-working E. Magnolia Vintage. Since we've been in different cities for the past year or so, we've been shooting our pieces separately,which means our storefront has looked a little...discombobulated. And we're over it. So we spent a crazy day here in San Diego rushing to photograph all over our current pieces, as well as a ton of new ones. We worked hard, but also gave a little bit of time to daydreaming--talking about owning a brick-and-mortar shop one day, filled with vintage and modern pieces, housewares, beautiful paper goods, maybe even a shop puppy...and on and on. We dream of one day having our own studio space, with gorgeous wood floors and white walls and amazing lighting. But for now, we had to improvise. So we threw up this little DIY home studio to photograph our goods! 

Since my walls are a lame beige color, we purchased a 53" by 12 yard seamless paper roll at Calumet Photo in LA. We taped it to the wall next to the biggest window in the apartment (note my decorative duct tape...thanks Mom!) but we wanted to add a bit of whimsy to the photos, so we added this tissue paper garland. Angela had another cute idea of painting polka dots on the paper itself--you could do so many things to make this unique! Unfortunately for us, this happened to be the only day ever that San Diego decided to have rain and grey, grey, grey, so lighting was a bit of a battle. We're excited to mess with some studio lighting soon, but until then, we worked with what we had (aka lamps and Christmas lights). 

One thing that would have been helpful is a thin board to put between the carpet and the paper, to avoid crinkling and wrinkles. We will definitely have that for our next shooting day. We still have lots to learn, but are so happy with how our photos turned out and how much cleaner our storefront looks. Stop by the shop to see more, we will be adding more pieces all this week! xo. 

ps: this would also be so fun as a photobooth backdrop for a party, shower, or wedding! the possibilities are endless! 

East Magnolia Vintage